Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I never get to think about myself when I do films. I started in advertising, so I always have to think about what my client and my audience things. If a film doesn't work, it's a big failure.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

Anybody who comes to Stockholm in the summer for the first time and walks around the city at night must think that we're weird.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I'm pretty spoiled. I work a lot. I go from project to project.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I don't have much patience as I really like to work a lot and it is really hard to work a lot in movies because you have to have patience - every movie is a huge test of patience.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

In many ways, 'Lords of Chaos' is my first real movie. I went deeper with this film than any of my other movies. I approached my other films like I did my music videos or commercials, like jobs. But 'Lords of Chaos' I wrote myself, and it's a close, personal story.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

Now, with YouTube, the audience decides. You can make something that is 20 minutes long or one minute long.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I've always been drawn to movies where I get a chance to look into a world that I kind of know about, but that I never really get to see what's happening behind the doors.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

Because I'm traveling so much, Stockholm has become more and more a place for me to recharge and be creative, and then I head back on the road again.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

Even in Los Angeles, I stop the car and walk. People look at me and think I am lost or something, they stop and ask if they can help me.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I do most of my post production in Stockholm, usually at night, so when I get out of the office at 3 or 4 in the morning, I usually walk around the city before I go home - that's my routine.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

Polar' is based on the first and a little bit on the second book and all the characters from those novels are in there. The story is based on the graphic novel, but when it came to the execution of the film I felt I couldn't really make a movie without any dialogue.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I'd never really shot action scenes before, but I realized early on that is very much like shooting choreography and dance.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

As a music video director, I have about 4 billion hits on my music videos on YouTube, and I'm really proud of that.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

Especially in Los Angeles you get attached to these projects and then they lie around and you wait and look for that moment in time when everything just works out - every movie that gets made here in LA is a little bit of a miracle.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

That is one of the sides of Los Angeles that I really like as people may have their big careers but there is one side to Hollywood that is always open to taking risks - as long as it doesn't include risking too much money.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I am a very spread out type of director as I just love working in all of these different worlds; I go from commercials to music videos to art projects.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I have a pile of scripts at home that I love. Some of them are hard to get made. We have to give up stuff. It's hard to get movies made.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

I'm a commercial director; I do some very very commercial stuff in the commercial world. My music videos are always analyzed. I need to think about what the audience is going to think.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

Even when I wrap my work and come home or whatever it is I try to do, I can identify with that feeling of being a little outside, of struggling to get back into normality.

Jonas Akerlund
Jonas Akerlund

The guys in U2, whom I work with a lot, have a very open political agenda.